our "vacation"

Last night I just wanted to kind of give a quick little post to let everyone know that we were alive and well. Alive anyway!! Last night I was still feeling really ill ( and trust me I am not pregnant!) but this morning I felt just fine. However, not so much for Ben. He has been suffering all day. Ivan had a fever yesterday but today seems to be up to his normal mischevious self. Including shutting his cousin's foot in the screen door. Such a sweetie.

Our trip was...an experience. Depsite a lot of throw up and way too much McDonalds ( which tends to go hand in hand) the trip was not that bad. The kids constantly asked how many more miles there were and things like that BUT for the most part did really well. I don't want to bore anyone with all the details but since some people have asked I will share. So brace yourself...

The first day we actually started out a lot later than we had planned. We hadn't even left Norfolk ( we were in Oceanview for all of you Norfolkians) when I heard the first, " Mommy I feel like I am going to throw up!" from Ethan. Which he did, about 5 minutes later. There were 3 major accidents right out of Norfolk, and traffic was backed way up so we got off and headed to a Wal Mart to get some dramamine. There was a 12 count bottle or 100...we went with 100! We got back on the road and had only been driving for a little while when, " I need to go potty!" Connor needed to go potty about every hour. Finally we made it out of VA, and went into WV. The countryside was beautiful, however the towns seemed to be kind of old and rundown. We drove through to Kentucky and stayed in Lexington. The kids were exaughsted and so we just went right to bed.

We got up Sunday morning and drove from Kentucky through the bottom part of Indiana. Stopped for another throw up incident and got back on the road. Drove through to Illinois. We stopped in this little town called Mt. Vernon, and it seemed like we had stepped back in time. It took us a long time to find "civilization". We stopped and ate lunch at Pizza Hut and then got the kids a new movie. And then of course...back on the road. Our next stop was in Independence, MO. We stayed in this tiny town right outside and it took me awhile to find a grocery store. But I finally did and bought some dinner. Well poor Ethan, threw his dinner up and than crashed. It had been the longest day and by this time Ethan had thrown up twice. Too say we all needed to go to bed was an understatement!

We took a little "tourist" break on Monday and went to the visitors center in Indepence. It was so neat and the kids loved going into the play area, that was from pioneer times. They had built this little cabin with a bed and Ivan climbed right in and said, " night night". We saw the RLDS temple and it is just really an odd building. Harmony thought it looked "wierd". Then we drove down and went to Liberty Jail. Just in case you are not LDS, Liberty Jail is where one of our prophets, Joseph Smith was put in jail. It was very emotinal to go to but I did enjoy being there. Because we had stayed so long being tourists, we had a long drive ahead of us once we got back on the road. We started out and didn't eat lunch until 3. Yikes! We got back on the road and made it through Kansas and onto Denver. By the time we finally stopped it was around 8:30. Ethan told me he was so tired he didn't want dinner. And apparently he didn't because all of the boys fell asleep!

Tuesday we left Colorado and headed to Salt Lake. We actually went through Wyoming ( and holy cow Cindy you have a very boring state to drive through!!) There was nothing there. We did stop so that I could go to the bathroom in this tiny little town that had a population of...2. Yep said so on the sign. We kept driving and by the time we got to SLC, we were sick. Insanely sick. The ride down was all mountains and curves and it had me soooo car sick. We got to our hotel which was right next to Temple Square but I felt horrible. After I was feeling a little better we went down and walked around. They have added so much since I had been there last. I still felt terrible though so we came back. Got some nice pictures though and just enjoyed the peaceful feeling that is there.

Wednesday we really pushed it. We got up and just drove. No detours, just drove. We made it to Ben's grandma's ( where we are staying) at around 7. It was a long day.

So that is our trip. Hopefully no one has fallen asleep. I have seen so much of this country now, and most of it is because of the Navy. I read once that there are two types of travel..." first class and with kids"so although I would prefer to see the world in a stretch limo, it has been so great to share all of this with the kids. They have seen so much in their young lives. Anyway, here are some more pictures.